1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to aircraft displays and display arrangements.
2. Description of Related Art
Commercial aircraft cockpit display arrangements usually include two panels of identical primary instruments located in front of the captain and first officer respectively. As far as possible, the arrangement of the instruments on both panels is the same although some instruments may need to be positioned differently according to the shape of the panel. A central panel contains an array of secondary instruments that can be viewed by both the captain and first officer. In most aircraft, the primary instruments are provided by a number of discrete, separate instruments, which may have dial and moving pointer displays or may be electronic displays, such as provided by CRT displays, matrix array LCD displays or the like. The trend is for electromechanical displays to be replaced by electronic displays on which a number of different functions are represented.
Aircraft cockpit display arrangements are known employing two separate 4:3 display panels in front of each pilot. Each display panel is dedicated to displaying different sets of information. One panel may display aircraft attitude, height, speed and direction information and the other panel may display navigation information or a radar weather image. In event of a failure of one or other of these panels, it is possible to switch the remaining panel to display the information previously displayed on the failed panel, if this is information is more flight-critical. This provides a certain degree of redundancy but has the disadvantage that not all of the information can any longer be presented to the pilot. Although the arrangement provides for the more important information to be displayed, the loss of any information is a severe disadvantage.
What is needed is an improved aircraft display and display arrangement.